Despite a building boom, there are still 75,000 fewer residential housing units in the New Orleans metro area than before Hurricane Katrina, and housing costs are up by one-third, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

While 24,700 new housing units were built between 2004-09, the New Orleans metro area still has 13 percent housing fewer housing units than the 587,000 in place before Katrina struck, HUD said.